Everyone was immediately tempted and wanted to go to Duan's house to learn the craft.
Duan Mingjing registered the names of each household.
A curious woman came over and asked, "Mr. Duan, after I learn the art of making tofu, can I teach it to my family?"
Duan Mingjing was stunned by this question. To be honest, this recipe was indeed not a valuable thing.
Just soak the beans, grind them into a paste and cook them.
Duan Mingjing: "Once you learn it, it becomes your own thing. You can do with it whatever you want. But if you want to learn it, you have to do a lot of work here first!"
"That's natural!" the woman responded happily, preparing to go back to discuss it with her family.
A family can only have one woman, who should be the one in the family?
Spring plowing has just begun, and there is no shortage of work in the fields.
What the Duan family means is that they are not in a hurry to let people do the work. They just need to take their time and wait until the specified number of days to work before teaching them how to make dried tofu.
Qiao Lan originally thought that it would be enough to ask any family in the village to provide someone to do the work for two months.
The people in the village were very enthusiastic. Everyone wanted to learn the craft immediately, and they wished that the whole family could join in. Some people came to Duan's house and asked if they could bring their family members to finish the work earlier.
Qiao Lan agreed and calculated it based on headcount and hours for them. If they finished it earlier, they would come over earlier to learn the recipe.
For this reason, Qiao Lan also asked Xiao Sun and Duan Mingjing to carry the stone mill at home outside the yard and build a simple straw shed outside the yard as a place for future teaching.
As soon as Duan Mingqing went to Tongzhou to ask for advice, the door of Duan's house was knocked open by a woman wearing a flowered gown.
The woman was about thirty or forty years old. She was wearing a dark red flowered gown with a red silk flower in her ear. She looked like she had a lot of hair on her head and looked like a very common matchmaker.
Mrs. Wang looked at the woman at the door and asked, "What's the matter?"
"Excuse me, is this the Duan family? I am Matchmaker Lai from the county. I was entrusted by the Lu family in the next village to help matchmaker Lu Xiaoxiucai with your girl." Matchmaker Lai smiled happily.
Mrs. Wang: "You must have found the wrong person! There are many people named Duan in the village."
She was definitely looking for the wrong person. She had never heard of this Lu family.
"How could it be? Is your eldest master Duan Mingjing?" Matchmaker Lai asked in surprise.
She asked the villagers to find out where the Mingjing Duan family was.
Wang: "Duan Mingjing is not my uncle!"
Matchmaker Lai looked surprised, she had found the wrong one!
Mrs. Wang added calmly, "It's my second master!"
Matchmaker Lai has been in the business for many years and has extremely high professionalism. She smiled smoothly again: "Yes, it's your home, madam."
Before making a matchmaking matchmaker, you should inquire about the family background of both parties.
The famous head of the Duan family, Lai Matchmaker, had heard someone say earlier that her ancestor had been an official but had disappeared a few years ago, and it was not known whether the male members of the family had passed the exam or not. In short, they were a wealthy family here.
Although the Lu family in the next village is a little poorer, the eldest son of the Lu family is young and promising. He was admitted as a scholar at the age of sixteen! He is an extremely dazzling presence in the entire county. He is a talented person and has a lot of promise at a young age!
The two families matched together were truly a match made in heaven.
Mrs. Wang stared at Matchmaker Lai and thought about the children at home. Could they be matchmakers for her Tong'er?
"I wonder which child in my family will be the matchmaker?" Wang asked.
"When the Lu family asked me to tell them, they said that their scholar accidentally saw your eldest daughter riding a horse and fell in love at first sight..." Matchmaker Lai relayed this.
"Mom, are there guests at home?" Duan Sitong's voice came from the yard.
When Matchmaker Lai heard the girl's voice, she hurriedly looked along Wang's side and saw a girl wearing a sky-blue short coat slowly walking out of the hall. She looked fair and wealthy!
It can be said that she is the best girl she has ever seen!
Matchmaker Lai: "Madam, being a matchmaker is a big deal. Can we come into your yard to talk?"
Mrs. Wang nodded and took the matchmaker into the house.
Mrs. Wang: "Tong'er, go and call grandma."
Duan Sitong: "Hey!"
Within a short time, everyone in charge of the Duan family came to the main room and sat face to face with the matchmaker.
Matchmaker Lai took a sip from the Duan family's tea bowl, looked around at the tea cups placed around the Duan family's masters, and secretly sighed in her heart, they really are a wealthy family.
Matchmaker Lai explained in a few words that she wanted to be a matchmaker and praised the man as a young scholar with a bright future.
The Duan family members had no reaction after hearing this, only Duan Sitong blushed.
"When has this person seen our Tong'er?" Qiao Lan asked.
Matchmaker Lai introduced her enthusiastically, "I passed by Duanjia Village earlier and saw your girl riding a horse..."
Qiao Lan didn't believe it. The village was in front of their village. How could we still go there?
He must have come here on purpose!
Seeing that their Tong'er grew up well and the family had enough money to ride a horse, I was really moved.
She could understand the young man's confusion, but getting married was not something he took lightly.
Qiao Lan: "What about Lu Dian's family?"
"The elders of the Lu family died early, and the family was divided two years ago. Both Lu Xiucai's parents are here, and he has a younger brother who is a compatriot. He has three houses and five acres of land. The Lu family has a clean reputation, and they are all honest farmers.
..." Matchmaker Lai boasted.
Qiao Lan translated it, saying that both her parents were farmers. There was a lot of land waiting to be cultivated at home, and one person could live in one room in the house, but everything needed to be provided for Lu Dian to study.
Qiao Lan was originally dissatisfied with her age and felt that Duan Sitong was too young!
Now when I hear it, I am dissatisfied with Lu Dian’s family situation!
It's not that she thinks the Lu family is poor, although this is a fatal flaw, but putting aside this poverty.
Both of the Lu family's parents were farmers and could not read a single word. No matter how good-tempered they were, there was a generation gap between them and the girl from their family who was educated in playing, chess, calligraphy and painting.
It is not easy for a family like the Lu family to provide for their children to study. They have to spend a lot of money to be elected and Jinshi. These days will definitely become more and more difficult.
Let’s talk about Lu Dian. He was admitted as a scholar at the age of 16. It would take another four or five years to pass the exam. There have been too many changes in the intervening four to five years, and he might just stop being a scholar in this life.
Qiao Lan doesn't believe that Lu Dian is better than Duan Mingqing and Duan Mingchen. He may be better than Duan Mingjing, let alone their biological father, Tong'er.
If Duan Sitong gets married, she will definitely have to endure hardships!
Qiao Lan doesn't need to think about what hard life is like, just look at the people next door.
The woman next door gets up earlier than the chickens all day long. She feeds the chickens, cooks, and washes clothes before dawn. After breakfast, she has to work in the fields. She can only rest after everyone in the family has rested at night.
The men in that family were not much better, they worked from morning till night.
This is true for every household in the village.
This is also the reason why Qiao Lan doesn't want her daughter-in-law to make dried tofu and sell it. The family can hire people and has no shortage of money, so why bother?